Daycare Worker Cries In Court & Gets Probation After Attempting To Hang 16-Month Old Baby With A Noose

A judge pointed to a “perfect storm” of circumstances Monday when he spared prison for a Minneapolis home day-care operator who hanged a toddler from a noose in the basement before fleeing in her minivan and leaving a trail of mayhem, seriously injuring two people.

The 16-month-old survived after a parent dropping off a child intervened and took the noose from the boy’s neck.

Karia also admitted before Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam to third-degree assault for striking a pedestrian, another driver and a bicyclist as she fled in her minivan. She was snatched from a Minneapolis freeway overpass, ready to jump, and taken into custody.

After a two-hour hearing, Karia received a 10-year probationary sentence, with credit for the 20 months in jail. She also must follow court-ordered mental health treatment and electronic home monitoring for at least two months. She will live with her adult son but cannot have unsupervised contact with her daughters or other minors. Karia’s three other children are ages 2, 7 and 10, and child protection proceedings continue over her fitness as a parent.

In deciding against prison time, Quam agreed with the assessment by doctors that Karia was “a low risk” to reoffend. He called her actions “the perfect storm of factors unlikely to ever be repeated.” He said Karia’s “was one of the hardest cases I’ve ever had. … There are no easy answers here.”

“We came in here with our hearts in our throats,” he said, adding that Karia will leave jail no later than Tuesday.

Karia, who fought back tears and low sobs throughout the hearing, read a statement in Russian spelling out in great detail the abuses she alleges her husband inflicted upon her and her children since they arrived to the United States from Ukraine in 2006. She said he hit and threatened to kill her, drove the family into financial

ruin, forced her to work despite her psychological struggles and prevented her from getting medical attention.

“I don’t want to push this terrible crime onto my husband. I just want to explain what happened,” she said, her words interpreted to English. “Your Honor, my children need me … Give me a chance to resume a normal life.”

Upon learning she was pregnant with another daughter, she told the court, her husband punched her in the stomach for not giving him a son.

She closed with a promise to follow probation and added, “I thank God nobody died.”

Prosecutor Christina Warren pushed for a term of nearly 13 years, raising doubts that Karia could be properly supervised outside of prison and receive the care she needs to restore her mental health.

Warren wrote in a court filing that “instead of being the person most able and willing to protect [the boy] from harm, she … left him hanging by a noose around his neck in her basement.”

The defense argued for no further incarceration. It pointed to several ways that Karia has already been punished including her lengthy jail time, loss of her child-care career, parental time with her son and daughters, and a monetary loss topping $100,000.

Her attorneys also pointed to the “scarlet letter of disgrace in the community she’s loved and served since immigrating to the United States [and] the shame she will live with for the rest of her life for doing something so out of character that harmed many people.”

Ear Hustle 411 is not a satirical website, all of our stories and sources are real. We pride ourselves in being as accurate as possible. Ear Hustle 411 is an informative, Entertainment blog where we keep our ears to the streets for all the latest trends in fashion, new music, gadgets, celeb gossip, entertainment, and breaking news.